Stone, Sources and Social Networks: Tracing Movement and Exchange Across Dharawal Country, Southeastern Australia

Historical evidence suggests that at the time of European settlement in the NSW Illawarra region, Dharawal groups, who came together for ceremonies, had an established regional network with movement of people, and items, via pathways linking the highlands west of the Illawarra escarpment and the coastal plain. The degree to which the established network described in European accounts reflects pre-colonial patterns or activity affected by early colonial settlement is unclear, however. This thesis examines this topic by comparing archaeological and historical evidence. Ground edged hatchets, and raw material for their manufacture, are known to have moved within Aboriginal social networks and several sites in the Dharawal region have been identified as likely sources of stone for hatchets and other tools. Non-destructive archaeological provenancing of 148 ground edged hatchets from coastal plain and inland findspots in and adjacent to the Dharawal study area provides an opportunity to characterise pre-colonial patterns of raw material use, and movement of artefacts from source to find-spot. Matches to sources within Dharawal country, as well as beyond the region, trace the local and inter-regional social network within which these artefacts and/or raw materials moved. This provenancing research is a component of a broader, Australian Research Council funded, study of Aboriginal exchange systems and social networks in Southeastern Australia 2012-14: Axes, Exchange, Social Change: New Perspectives on Australian Hunter Gatherers (DP12010393), directed by Peter Grave (University of New England) and Val Attenbrow (Australian Museum). Spatial reconstruction of Early European observations of movement and gathering of Aboriginal people across, and into and out of Dharawal country between 1788 and 1850, allows archaeological and historical social network patterns to be directly compared. Results suggest significant correlation between the two, as well as consistency in the historical pattern over time. This evidence suggests pathways linking Dharawal groups socially and economically, in place prior to the arrival of Europeans, continued to be used throughout the first fifty years of European colonisation. These results that support and enhance previous research findings in the region. Evidence that this cultural pattern may have remained stable through a period of known social upheaval suggests that the network of pathways interconnecting Dharawal groups, pathways aligned with the distinctive physiography of country, may have also been stable through earlier times of change. If so, this may also shed light on the nature, and function, of this network in the culturally, socially and environmentally dynamic, deeper past

Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in sepsis-induced hepatic microvascular dysfunction

OBJECTIVE AND DESIGN: Hepatic microvascular dysfunction is a critical event in the development of liver failure during sepsis. Activated blood cells and reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of sepsis. METHODS: Intravital-videomicroscopy was used to determine whether RONS contribute to the recruitment of leukocytes/platelets in the hepatic microvasculature during sepsis. Six hours following cecal-ligation and puncture (CLP), disturbances of the hepatic microvasculature were assessed in WT-mice (C57Bl/6 J; n = 8), in mice lacking gp91(phox)(n = 5), overexpressing superoxide-dismutase (SOD, n = 8), in WT-mice treated with a NOS-inhibitor (l-NAME, n = 5), lacking nNOS, eNOS or iNOS (n = 5 each), treated with the NO-donor DetaNO (n = 5), in WT-mice treated with gadolinium-chloride (GdCl(2), n = 5) and compared to a group of WT-mice following a sham operation (n = 8). Six hours post-CLP, the adhesion of leukocytes and platelets in terminal hepatic venules (THV) and sinusoids was quantified. RESULTS: In WT-mice, CLP elicited increases in the number of adherent leukocytes and platelets. Similar responses to CLP were noted in mice overexpressing SOD or lacking either eNOS or gp91(phox). The blood-cell recruitment was significantly blunted in septic iNOS-knockout mice and this response was reversed by pre-treatment with DetaNO. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that iNOS-derived NO is a determinant of the pro-inflammatory phenotype assumed by the hepatic microvasculature during sepsis

Ethically Driven and Methodologically Tailored: Setting the Agenda for Systematic Reviews in Domestic Violence and Abuse

PURPOSE: Systematic reviews have an important, and growing, role to play in the global evidence eco-system of domestic violence and abuse. Alongside substantive contributions to knowledge, such reviews stimulate debates about ethical reviewing practices and the importance of tailoring methods to the nuances of the field. This paper aims to pinpoint a set of ethical and methodological priorities to guide and enhance review practices specifically in the field of domestic abuse. METHOD: The five Pillars of the Research Integrity Framework (ethical guidelines for domestic abuse research) are used to interrogate the systematic review process. To do so, the Framework is retrospectively applied to a recently completed systematic review in domestic abuse. The review included a rapid systematic map and in-depth analysis of interventions aimed at creating or enhancing informal support and social networks for victim-survivors of abuse. RESULTS: Ethical and methodological priorities for systematic reviews in domestic abuse include (1) Safety and wellbeing: maintaining the wellbeing of researchers and stakeholders, and appraising the ethics of included studies, (2) Transparency/ accountability: transparent reporting of research funding, aims and methods together with explicit consideration of authorship of outputs, (3) Equality, human rights and social justice: developing diverse review teams/ Advisory groups, and review methods that aim to search for, and report, diverse perspectives. Considering researcher positionality/ reflexivity in the review, (4) Engagement: collaboration with non-academic stakeholders and individuals with lived experience throughout the review process, (5) Research Ethics: independent ethical scrutiny of systematic review proposals with input from researchers with expertise in systematic reviews and domestic abuse. CONCLUSION: Additional research is required to comprehensively examine the ethics of each stage of the review process. In the meantime, attention should be given to the underpinning ethical framework for our systematic review practices and the wider research infrastructure that governs reviews

Mixed metal nanoparticle assembly and the effect on surface enhanced raman scattering

Here we report the assembly of mixed metal nanoparticles using an oligonucleotide-templated approach. Substitution of one of the gold nanoparticle probes with an analagous silver probe to produce a hetero-metal duplex permitted surface enhanced Raman scattering of the dye label, exploiting the improved surface enhancement properties of silver nanoparticles whilst maintaining the surface chemistry benefits of gold nanoaprticle

How Artwork is Interpreted as a Function of Gender of the Artist

The purpose of the present study is to examine how men and women show similarities and differences in how they interpret works of art when the artwork is attributed to a male or female artist. Earlier research suggests than when adults view artwork attributed to a male, they value that artwork higher in terms of quality, aesthetics, importance, and monetary values than if they believe the artwork was produced by a female. The current set of paintings which will be judged consist of both abstract and modern paintings from the mid- and- late 20th century. We anticipate obtaining ratings for the aforementioned qualities by a total of 100 undergraduate students at the conclusion of the study

Training Informal Supporters to Improve Responses to Victim-Survivors of Domestic Violence and Abuse: A Systematic Review

Informal supporters (friends, family, colleagues, and community members) play a crucial role in societal-wide responses to victim-survivors of domestic violence and abuse. Familial and social networks, however, report a sense of helplessness and difficulties in knowing how to respond. This mixed method systematic review examines the effectiveness, and perceived effectiveness, of training informal supporters to improve their responses to victim-survivors. A novel conceptual framework was developed to underpin the review. A systematic search of four electronic databases, specialist repositories, and websites were used to identify empirical research (in academic or gray literature). Eleven included studies examined educational interventions that aimed to improve responses from informal supporters. Quality appraisal was undertaken, and studies were judged to be "good enough" for synthesis. The studies in the review indicated that informal supporters recognized the value of training for building understanding and equipping them with the skills to respond to victim-survivors. The synthesis identified statistically significant improvements in the knowledge and attitudes of informal supporters in the immediate and short-term following training. Using a behavior change model to frame the evidence, the review found that training/educational activities prime informal supporters to respond to victim-survivors, as well as enhancing their capacity and motivation to do so. This increases the likelihood that informal supporters will take action to support victim-survivors of abuse. We don't know, however, what type of support they will provide and/or whether it would be judged to be helpful by victim-survivors

Tissue factor: a mediator of inflammatory cell recruitment, tissue injury, and thrombus formation in experimental colitis

There is growing evidence for an interplay between inflammatory and coagulation pathways in acute and chronic inflammatory diseases. However, it remains unclear whether components of the coagulation pathway, such as tissue factor (TF), contribute to intestinal inflammation, and whether targeting TF will blunt the inflammatory cell recruitment, tissue injury, and enhanced thrombus formation that occur in experimental colitis. Mice were fed 3% dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) to induce colonic inflammation, with some mice receiving a mouse TF-blocking antibody (muTF-Ab). The adhesion of leukocytes and platelets in colonic venules, light/dye-induced thrombus formation in cremaster muscle microvessels, as well as disease activity index, thrombin–antithrombin (TAT) complexes in plasma, and histopathologic changes in the colonic mucosa were monitored in untreated and muTF-Ab–treated colitic mice. In untreated mice, DSS elicited the recruitment of adherent leukocytes and platelets in colonic venules, caused gross and histologic injury, increased plasma TAT complexes, and enhanced thrombus formation in muscle arterioles. muTF-Ab prevented elevation in TAT complexes, reduced blood cell recruitment and tissue injury, and blunted thrombus formation in DSS colitic mice. These findings implicate TF in intestinal inflammation and support an interaction between inflammation and coagulation in experimental colitis